Books in the Classroom
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site: Civil War in Children's Literature
This page from Carol Hurst's Children's Literature offers book reviews and planning help for an upper elementary unit on the Civil War. Includes information on books for teachers, books for students, easy-purchase links, and links to...
Other
Monticello: Sally Hemings and Her Children
Monticello's biography of Sally Hemings. Provides a link to a description of the Hemings-Jefferson controversy.
Digital History
Digital History: From Slave Labor to Free Labor
The most difficult task confronting many Southerners during Reconstruction was devising a new system of labor to replace the shattered world of slavery. Learn how plantation owners and freed slaves adapted to this massive shift in the...
A&E Television
History.com: Black History Milestones
A detailed account of the history of African Americans is presented in this article. Divided by main topics or periods of time, the coming of slavery to America is the first focus. Followed by plantation life and escapes to freedom and...
Other
Encyclopedia of Arkansas: Ethnic Groups Africian Americans
Perhaps one of the largest ethinc/cultural group to inhabit Arkansas are the African Americans. Follow their first arrival as slaves working the plantations through all the years toward emancipation, and into present times. Highly...
Digital History
Digital History: Pre Civil War South
A comprehensive look at the economy of the South and the changes brought by the cotton gin. Read through five pages that discuss the economy, the tradition of the plantation, and the sectionalism that arises in this time period.
University of Oregon
Mapping History: American History
Interactive and animated maps and timelines of historical events and time periods in American history from pre-European times until post-World War II.
Stanford University
Beyond the Bubble: Slave Quarters
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students examine a photograph of former slave quarters in Georgia and answer questions about the living conditions of slaves. They will also observe how the fact that the photograph was taken decades...
University of North Carolina
Documenting the American South: Summary of Twelve Years a Slave
Read a summary of the story of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped and sold to a plantation in Louisiana, where he worked as a slave for twelve years. Hyperlink to the text of Northup's book, Twelve Years a Slave.
Other
Encyclopedia of Arkansas: Cotton Industry
Cotton has long been an important and successful part of the economy and history of Arkansas. This is an overview of the cotton industry from the early days of plantations, slaves, immigrant workers to today's productive source of...
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: The Slave Experience: Family
Using oral histories and primary sources, the story of slave family life is told.
PBS
Africans in America: Virginia Looks Toward Africa for Labor
This website explains why Virginia needed laborers, why it led to the use of African labor and how it was justified by Christians. Hyperlinks to related topics on the site.
Other
Texas Beyond History: Uncovering Our Heritage
Use archaeology to teach students about the history of Texas. There are online exhibits and a large teacher resource page with lesson plans for all subject areas using archaeology as an entry point for the lessons. A kids-only page gives...
Curated OER
Virginia Tobacco Plantation
Four accounts of the complex power relationships between slaves and slave holders within English colonies in Barbados, Virginia and Pennsylvania, as well as documents about slave revolts and anti-slavery agitation.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Colonial African American Life
Provides a few statistics on slaves in Maryland and Virginia and then contrasts the lives of field hand vs household or urban slaves.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Peculiar Institution
A very brief look at the "Peculiar Institution" of slavery in the South before the Civil War. Read about how slavery became so entrenced and why it drove a wedge between the North and South.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Religion, Making of African American Identity: V. 1
A series of songs, narratives, and memoirs that examine the spiritual beliefs of and experiences with religion among slaves in southern plantation communities.
Digital History
Digital History: The Sections [Pdf]
Soon after the end of the Revolutionary War, the characteristics of the various parts of the new United States established themselves. Find out about the sectionalism, economy, and needs in the country in the early 1800s--the...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Enslavement, Making of African American Identity: V. 1, 1500 1865
Twenty-eight primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-that explore plantation life, the qualities and conditions of slavery, work, and resistance to oppression.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Community, Making of African American Identity: V. 1, 1500 1865
Twenty nine primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-that explore how enslaved individuals and families coped with, adjusted to, maintained communities within, and opposed the system of oppression.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: The Enslaved Family, Making of African American Identity: Vol. 1
This site offers two letters and a memoir from the mid-nineteenth century, and interviews from the early-twentieth century, about the importance and the roles of enslaved families.
Library of Congress
Loc: America's Story: South Carolina
Explore how South Carolina moved from a "plantation culture" in 1670 to a "growing research center and banking state" today. South Carolina played a major role in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.
University of Virginia
Virginia Center for Digital History: United States Expansion, 1800 1860
An essay that looks at issues affecting Americans leading up to the Civil War. These included economic changes that led to new ideological, social, cultural, and political issues that further divided the nation along moral and regional...
Digital History
Digital History: Enslaved African Americans and Religious Revivalism
A brief look at the role of Christianity in the lives of slaves in the 1800s. See how evangelicalism was reflected in the way slaves practiced their religion.